How to raise healthy children

It is not enough for a growing child to stick to a schedule, take vitamins, and get exercise in order to be healthy. Good health includes not only the proper functioning of the respiratory organs, blood circulatory system, or digestive tract, but also psychological, moral, and spiritual health.

These are the subtle things of which we are most ignorant. At the everyday level people know that “all diseases are caused by nerves,” but few realize how true this is.

Before the new school year doctors examined Ukrainian schoolchildren from first-graders to seniors and concluded that a mere 23 percent may be called absolutely healthy, while 47 percent already suffer from chronic diseases.

How can this be explained? Of course, there is the environmental factor and a heavy school schedule. But if a sixth- or seventh-grader is losing his or her eyesight and has a spinal curvature, the parents should start counting the hours the child spends in front of the computer or TV set. Is it three, five, or six hours? If there are stomach problems, how many chips and Cokes does your child consume?

Doctors have started warning us that there are increasing numbers of children with endocrine disorders. In other words, they are saying pointblank that children’s psyches are cracking from the excessive pressures of everyday life. The reason is that there is no protection. First, children do not have a psychological core yet-their own convictions, views, and worldview (in the case of older children), and second, they do not have the necessary understanding and support from their families.

It is small wonder that teenagers are attracted to youth subcultures-punks, skinheads, goths, and emos (recently banned in Russia). It is amusing to read generalizations in some mass media to the effect that “in order for a schoolchild to bear the load and remain healthy, he or she needs to stick to a schedule, take vitamins, eat properly, and spend less time in front of a TV set and computer.”

This is good advice, but good for raising biological robots. What will the child’s soul be filled with? Nature abhors a vacuum. Most parents, not to mention our government leaders, do not give this a single thought. Lack of spirituality is likely to cause some big problems in the near future.

ESCAPE INTO TELEVISION

Psychologists say that family, school, and peers are all factors in children’s upbringing. Lately, the mass media have forced their way into this group as well. The composition of the contemporary family includes a father, mother, a child, and a TV set. Listening to the news in the kitchen at breakfast is a must for adults, while in the evening they check their children’s homework or help them do it while watching a soap opera (with breaks for commercials).

These are our realities. Why are we surprised, then, if children and parents become more and more alienated? This brings to mind Oksana Zabuzhko’s novel Ya, Milena (I, Milena) in which television intrudes into the placid life of a couple. In case you haven’t read the novel, get a copy to find out what happens next.

According to the Razumkov Center, 30 percent of teenagers say that their parents either know nothing about their life (e.g., who their friends are, how they spend their free time, and what they dream about), while 17 percent feel it is difficult or even impossible for them to discuss worrisome topics with their parents. There is a growing wall separating the generations. Children lack communication, impressions, and positive emotions, so they constantly watch television. Thirty percent watch an average of more than four hours a day and 50 percent, more than four hours a day on weekends, while 13 percent spend more than seven hours in front of a TV set on weekends, says Iryna Zhdanova, a senior research associate at the State Institute for Family and Youth Development.

Given this kind of recreation, how many children will have normal eyesight and spines? Let’s not forget the beer and all kinds of junk food that they consume in front of the TV set.

Another huge problem, which WHO has already proclaimed the plague of the 21st century, is addiction to video games. Experts claim it is a big problem when 1.5 percent of underage children cannot live a day without playing a video or computer game. According to the data gathered by the State Institute for Family and Youth Development, 5 percent of children in Ukraine are addicted to video arcade games.

But who cares at the top? The authorities have removed one-armed bandits from the streets of Kyiv, but children still make their way to arcades and sit in front of a computer at home. A critical look at the situation leads one to the conclusion that it will take our leaders a long time to become worried about this. Meanwhile, young lives may be so easily broken. Therefore, parents need to bear responsibility for their children. A ban is not a solution; there has to be an alternative.

SINGING PREVENTS AGRESSION

There is an astounding number of ways to help children develop in a harmonious fashion, but parents are not using them. Experts say that 14 percent of children never do sports, except for their physical training classes, and 34 percent do not attend any hobby clubs, even though there are numerous music schools, sports groups, organizations for all age groups, crafts circles, choreographic studios, and folk ensembles.

“A few years ago the Germans introduced a new subject in school, singing, which is based on their authentic folk songs. All teachers had to cut a few minutes out of their classes to make time for the new one. German experts figured out that in 10 years’ time the country would have a generation with a much lower level of aggression than the current one. This would be a generation raised on the best examples of folklore,” said Maria Pylypchak, a member of the National Association of Composers of Ukraine and the head of the Tsviten Children Folk Ensemble, which is associated with the Hryhorii Veriovka Choir.

“According to the experts’ data, children who are taught singing become more creative and have greater initiative, the crime rate decreases throughout the country, and there are fewer homeless people and children raised in one-parent families. This is the way Germany is trying to forestall problems. I am certain that we do not need everything that children are now singing in Ukrainian schools and kindergartens. I am convinced that children’s education has to be built on two cornerstones: the classics and folklore. We need to take our best songs to help shape children’s ethical standards and aesthetic tastes,” Pylypchak said.

In keeping with the recommendations issued by Ukraine’s Ministry of Education, artists, musicologists, students of folklore, and ethnographers are now working to improve children’s music education. They emphasize that it is useful to look back to the past and learn from our ancestors to learn what should be included in the basics of education. After all, until the tragic 1920s and 1930s the Ukrainian nation was physically and morally healthy, robust, and creative.

The alternative being offered to computer games and environmentally hazardous toys is Ukraine’s folk heritage in the form of songs and folk crafts. A comprehensive approach is needed, rather than a situation where a child comes, plays, leaves, and forgets. For example, authentic folksongs – which are very soothing, by the way – need to be played at home, and parents and children should spend their leisure time together.

For the last six years ethnographer Halyna Oliinyk has organized folklore-ethnographic camps: children spend two weeks in the forest or mountains, where they improve their health and give their souls a rest, she says.

“Capitalizing on Galicia’s folk heritage, we have come up with games and pastimes for youth that can easily compete with discos and slot machines. During the 14 days in camp, children learn 36 songs sitting around a bonfire,” Oliinyk explained. “Through the children we also want to reach their parents, and you know what? It’s working: parents ask us what we do and how to do it. I have noticed that their family life and the relationships between the generations markedly improve. They love and appreciate each other.”

Joint creativity is what improves the atmosphere in families and the relationships between spouses and between parents and children because it restores trust and intimacy. Parents start talking more with their children, and eventually they begin learning how to communicate.

“It is important for a child to talk in order to obtain information, but what is even more important is that a child needs to see how mother or father creates a miracle-sings, embroiders, models clay, or makes something out of a building set. Children are especially fond of listening to a good storyteller, so parents have to be able to tell children stories at bedtime, answer their questions, and, in general, open up the world for them in an inspired, emotional, and artistic way. Why do children turn to television and CDs en masse? Because they lack good storytellers,” said psychologist Lesia Vovchyk-Blakytna.

Experts who have seen for themselves how wholesome folklore is for children’s education want to be heard by the government. Some of the groundwork done by scholars and artists, as well as their recommendations, has been included in the state program “Healthy Nation,” produced by the State Institute for Family and Youth Development, which is part of the Ministry for Family, Youth, and Sports of Ukraine.

No one knows when the government will get around to implementing the program. So parents would do best not to rely exclusively on schools. They need to think about what they can do to fill their child’s soul – and their own, too. After all, education is a two-way street.